By: Aldo Garcia

1. Little Ice Age! By: Aldo Garcia By: Aldo Garcia December 2, 2010 Photo courtesy of: wallpaperez.info

3. Methods of Studying the Little Ice Age • Scientific Analysis: • Ice cores • Volcanic eruptions • Tree ring investigations • Soil studies • Pollen analysis • Plotting of lichen diameters • Archaeological investigations • Social Records: • Records of town/village developments • Church records • Tax rolls • Reports on ease of travel • Wine harvests • Cereal production statistics • Grain prices • Fruit growing returns

4. Possible Causes for the Little Ice Age • Low sunspot activity • High volcanic activity • Intensified North Atlantic Oscillation Background courtesy of: http://luirig.altervista.org/cpm/albums/photochrom-prints-09/normal_04418-The-Rhone-Glacier--Glacier-Hotel-and-Furka-Road--Valais--Alps----.jpg

5. Low Sunspot Activity • Wolf Minimum • 1280-1340 • Spörer Minimum • 1450-1540 • Maunder Minimum • 1645-1715 • Dalton Minimum • 1790-1820 Background courtesy of: http://atmos.nmsu.edu/~nchanove/A105S04/lecture_37.html Graph courtesy of: Heaven and Earth.

6. Volcanic Explosivity Index VEI describes the size of a volcanic eruption. The size is determined by the volume of erupted material, height of eruption, and duration in hours. Eruptions are measured by an increasing scale from 0 - 8, 8 being the strongest. Each level increases by a factor of 10. 31: 5-7

7. Volume of Volcanic Ash Erupted • Tambora, 1815, with a VEI of 7, released over 100 cubic kilometers of ash. • Long Island, 1660, with a VEI of 6, released 30 cubic kilometers of ash. • Huaynaputina, 1600, with a VEI of 6, released 30 cubic kilometers of ash. • Billy Mitchell, 1580, with a VEI of 6, released 14 cubic kilometers of ash. • Bardarbunga, 1477, with a VEI of 6, released 10 cubic kilometers of ash. Graph courtesy of: http://www.earlham.edu/~ethribe/web/tambora.htm Background courtesy of: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/Tephra/30210599_014_caption.html

8. Picture courtesy of: http://www.cntraveller.com/news/2010/april/volcanic-ash-cloud-leaves-uk-flights-grounded Stratosphere: 11-30 miles above earth’s surface. Passenger plane cruises at about 5-9 miles above earth’s surface.

9. The North Atlantic Oscillation • Azores high – clockwise • Icelandic low – counterclockwise Background courtesy of: http://www.earthwatch2.org/LFF/Livingston/ Picture courtesy of: The Little Ice Age.

10. Positive phase of North Atlantic Oscillation Picture courtesy of: The Little Ice Age. Background courtesy of: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=914 • Negative phase of North Atlantic Oscillation Picture courtesy of: The Little Ice Age.

11. Conditions in the Little Ice Age • Erratic weather • Glacial advance • Winter carnivals • Famine • Deaths Background courtesy of: http://image1.masterfile.com/getImage/NjAwLTAwMDA4Mjc2bi4wMDAwMDAwMA=ABffLw/600-00008276n.jpg

12. Wacky Weather • Weather was unpredictable • Very warm and dry summers some years • Very cold and wet summers some years • Cycles could last several decades, few years, or a single season • Stretches of cold weather were interrupted by warm and wet periods • According to Peter de Menocal, the North Atlantic cooled 3° C. d m Background courtesy of: http://mrbarlow.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/ s w Picture courtesy of: The Little Ice Age.

13. Glacial Advancement The Allalin glacier, near Visp, descended so low that it blocked the Saas Valley forming a lake in 1589.l The Mer de Glace glacier inundated the towns of Les Tines and Le Châtelard with glacial melt water summer in 1599 and 1600. Picture courtesy of: http://brenthiggs.wordpress.com The Ruitor glacier advanced 1 kilometer from 1594-1598 causing flooding in the valleys downstream. Picture courtesy of: The Little Ice Age. The Giétroz glacier advanced into the Dranse River and caused flooding in the town of Martigny in 1595.

14. Background courtesy of: http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/07/08/deep-blue-ice.html Picture courtesy of: The Little Ice Age.

15. Background courtesy of: http://www.geomatics.uottawa.ca/copland/ Picture courtesy of: The Little Ice Age.

16. Winter Carnivals on the Thames River • Rivers frequently froze in England and Scotland between 1700-1900. • The Thames River in London would freeze in the winter months. • The Thames River began to freeze as early as 1309 and 1315. • Winter carnivals were a regular occurrence on the Thames River. Picture courtesy of: http://www.suite101.com/content/the-first-river-thames-frost-fair-of-1683-a187964 Background courtesy of: http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/frozen-river-aerial-alaska-wilderness-6928-pictures.htm Picture courtesy of: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1267757/Britain-facing-bitterly-cold-winters-drop-solar-winds.html

17. Famine • Climate shift brought late harvests and wet summers • Summer rains caused • waterlogged fields • premature germination • ruined and reduced crops • Ireland and Scotland had major crop failures in the winter of 1708/1709 • In 1739, much of the corn and barley were lost due to cold and wet weather in northern England • The Irish Potato Famine last 5 years and kills 1.5 million people

18. Wine Production in Europe Background courtesy of: http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/grapes-give-secrets/ Graph courtesy of: The Little Ice Age. • By 1440, wine growing had virtually disappeared in Great Britain. • From 1560-1600, the cooler and stormier conditions led to late wine harvests in Europe. • Between 1580-1600, wine production suffered in Switzerland, lower Hungary, and parts of Austria. • By winter 1708/1709 all vineyards in northern France were abandoned until the 20th century

19. Human Survival in Harsh Conditions • Glacial advance causes harvest failures and the deaths of 137,000 people in Finland. • The Black Death killed over 25 million people throughout Europe. • 2 million emigrate from Sweden, Norway, and Finland. • People lived shorter lives due to malnutrition. • Archaeological evidence shows that people were shorter in height than their medieval ancestors. • Elderly and young suffered from accidental hypothermia. • People begin to use cold resistant crops such as the potato. • Bad health: tuberculosis, typhoid fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, pneumonia, bronchitis, heart attacks, strokes, typhus infections

20. ends due to a strong ocean conveyor End of the Little Ice Age… ends due to less volcanic activity Photo courtesy of: http://www.threemoviebuffs.com/review/iceage2themeltdown ends in as little as 10 years

21. Bibliography • Fagan, Brian. Little Ice Age. USA: Basic Books, 2000. • Hoffman, Doug L., Simmons, Allen. The Resilient Earth. USA: BookSurge Publishing, 2008. • John, Brian S. The Ice Age: Past and Present. Great Britain: Williams Collins Sons and Co. Ltd. Glasgow, 1977. • Linden, Eugene. The Winds of Change. New York City: Simon and Schuster, 2006. • Plimer, Ian. Heaven and Earth. Lanham, Maryland: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2009. • Siebert L, Simkin T. Volcanoes of the World: An Illustrated Catalog of Holocene Volcanoes and their Eruptions. Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information Series, GVP-3, http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/largeeruptions.cfm 2002-current. • The Little Ice Age: Bill Chill. Dir. History Channel Network. Perf. Edward Herrmann. 2005.